Laboratory for Other Worlds, The Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh, PA) 2019-2020

Laboratory for Other Worlds is an immersive installation centered around a stop motion animation set. It uses an off-grid solar panel system alongside handmade and recycled materials to forge connections between green technology, science fiction, and the ecological imaginary.

 

Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view
2019
This installation/video set took the form of a laboratory built around a model landscape depicting the ruins of a fictional planet. The overall installation/set design could be thought of as a meditation on species entanglement, interconnected technologies, and animal/plant/landscape/machine hybridity.

Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
Mushroom Cyclops Protest Sign
2019
Animated video
5 min, 18 sec

Mushroom Cyclops Protest Sign is a short narrative stop motion video that tells a story in the form of laboratory notes. While being observed by unseen but omnipresent “scientists” the damaged landscape is bathed with rays of dark and light emanating from a mysterious but tender spacecraft. The light awakens the dormant Mushroom Cyclops Protest Sign, which emerges from the landscape, casts a gleaming eye back at the observers, and begins cycling through messages of collective action, activating the planet’s surface with movement and sound.

Mattress Factory Installed Video Tour
2019
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
The process involved first building the model landscape, shooting the video, and building the “Laboratory” around the model. The surface of the model was designed to represent planetary ruins.
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
The Spacecraft and Alien seen on either side of the landscape are “actors” - hybrid assemblages who appeared in the video and served as figure, architecture, machine, and art object in the installation.
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
The exhibition’s premise is that this laboratory is designed to observe, analyze, and extract information from the landscape.
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
Audio equipment captures emanating sound and directs it out into the gallery space.
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
2019
The video Mushroom Cyclops Protest Sign was imbedded in parts of the installation/laboratory, along with other videos.
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail

Various small videos are embedded throughout the installation. This detail shows the video, "Good News from Outer Space" embedded in a sculptural object

Good News from Outer space
20016
Animated Video
1 min, 15 sec
Laboratory for Other Worlds, installation view, detail
Living Earth
2017
Iphone video
35 sec

Solar panels run an off-grid electrical system designed to power a portion of the installation's electrical gear.

The electrical array run by the off-grid solar panel system is a series of video feeds that make the exhibition available to viewers through the window of the museum.